Six covenants

The Chumash describes six separate covenants between YHWH and the people of the Bible. The first is with Avram; the second with Avraham; the third is with Israel's sons at Sinai; the fourth is again at Sinai only this time jointly with Moshe and Israel's sons; the fifth is the brit shalom with the offspring of Pinchas; and the sixth is with Israel's sons at Moab. The standard interpretation is to aggregate all these covenants into one single covenantal understanding that amounts to the rabbinic regime. In fact, to be true to the text requires us to appreciate the differences between each of these covenants so that we could differentiate between one kind of covenantal relationship and another. If we would be a people in covenant with a divine ruler, we should have a better purchase on the nature of covenants and how the different styles of covenant might differ from each other.

In the covenant with Avram, YHWH promised him the land; in the covenant with Avraham, YHWH promised him the offspring, tempered by a side codicil with Sarah stipulating that the propagation over time of God’s promise, across the generations, would be Sarah’s prerogative to direct; the first covenant at Sinai defines the direct rule of YHWH over Israel's sons; the second covenant at Sinai defines YHWH's relationship with Moshe and indirectly with Israel's sons; the brit shalom infuses activist fervor into the intermediating hierarchy; and the covenant of Moab comprehends the entire book of Devarim and prepares Israel's sons to take possession of the land under their own responsibility.